Anthony injury a pain but it could be worse
The surprise from Orlando is that the Knicks didn’t see their name added to the list of unlucky Eastern Conference teams that have had their seasons all but ruined by a devastating injury to a key player.
This wasn’t Derrick Rose blowing out a knee. This wasn’t Brook Lopez breaking his right foot again.
But it was Carmelo Anthony, which is always a huge deal when he has to leave a game to get treatment in the locker room. That qualifies as Mike Woodson’s worst nightmare and nothing comes remotely close.
On Monday night, Anthony exited after rolling his left ankle in a win over the Magic. Knowing how he loves to play basketball, we’re assuming he’ll return for the Christmas Day game against Oklahoma City. He hasn’t missed a game this season, while logging a career-high 39.9 minutes a night. So it would be truly a surprise if he’s not at the Garden to take on one of the NBA’s elite teams.
Whether he’ll be limited against Kevin Durant, we’ll just have to see how he responds to treatment. On two perfectly good ankles, he’d have a difficult time contending with the Thunder’s superstar.
But the Knicks have to feel lucky that the big injury — a serious one to Anthony that would KO him for a long stretch of games— still hasn’t happened. The league has had enough of these franchise-altering injuries already and we’re not even through December.
After Indiana’s 103-86 blowout win in Brooklyn over the Nets, I told David West about Anthony’s scare and asked the Pacer power forward if he could imagine what the Knicks would be like if their top player went down for an extended period.
“Wow, yeah,’’ West said. “He’s such a major part of what their offense is. In that case, you would hope that the team would be strong enough and guys would be strong enough to fill in the gaps. But sometimes that’s not enough. Sometimes teams are not built to handle that kind of loss.’’
The Bulls obviously aren’t. Rose didn’t make it as far as Thanksgiving when his season came to a shocking end in Portland. Since then, they’ve fallen out of a playoff spot. Lopez didn’t even make it to Christmas and now the challenge for Jason Kidd is to figure out a way to get his plodding wing players free, now that he can’t pound the ball inside to Lopez.
The last place Anthony wants to be is on that list, which accounts for part of the reason why the Eastern Conference is in this beleaguered state. As Kidd’s counterpart, Frank Vogel pointed out, we’ve seen “a handful of teams that were supposed to be contenders that were decimated with injuries.’’
The Knicks thought they would be competing for the top spots against Indiana and Miami, along with Chicago and the Nets. But Woodson had to go 20 games without Tyson Chandler, his last line of defense, and that loss had as much to do with this silly, ongoing Woodson watch as anything else.
Jim Dolan can’t like how the Knicks have had several late-game mental meltdowns, the ones that have shown a real communications problem between his coach and players. But with Woodson still hanging onto his job, Dolan must also understand that all of the injuries have contributed to this rotten start. They’re saving Woodson’s skin, at this point.
The one positive until Monday was that Anthony had been able to answer the bell for every game and had been having a very good season. Not MVP caliber, as he did in the early stages of last season. But he also hasn’t had help from Chandler or Raymond Felton, who continued Monday to be a walking injury when he suffered a groin strain.
But at least the Knicks didn’t see their season implode Monday, as the Bulls and Nets have.
“It’s certainly a big setback,’’ Vogel said, referring to Lopez’s loss. “He’s a great player, one of the best centers in the league. So it’s obviously very difficult to replace what he gives you on both ends of the court. With that being said, they’ve got a roster full of Hall of Famers B and All-Star-level players.’’ ut among Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Deron Williams and Joe Johnson, nobody can force a defense to send an extra man and rotate, creating openings for shooters, the way that Lopez often did. Or like Anthony often does, whether he’s playing small forward or power forward. He has that kind of presence and talent level.
Like his game or not, Anthony needs to stay off that list. Or else the Knick season is officially over.